Professional Documents
Culture Documents
who taught for personal gain and for whom charity and humility had no place.
Schoolmasters in the 17th century often used fear and humiliation in order to control their pupils.
Brothers were to be motivated by charity and were to act as elder brothers to their pupils.
school that I began to go to special education classes and offered my services to the teacher. I really bonded with the kids in the special education class. I was teaching from the heart, and the kids biggest need seemed to be a teacher who cared about them and their individual needs. The greatest reward for me was working with a child who was mentally retarded and after three weeks that child began to read his first words. Just like a therapist, I feel that educating children is a form of healing. Working at this school was a confidence booster because I knew if I could relate to these kids and get positive results, I could teach anywhere. The measure of a great teacher is working with raw, unrefined students and making a change. It just seems too easy measuring a teachers ability when that teacher is already working with students who are successful in school.
I wanted to work with children who had learning disabilities. I wanted to go to a graduate program that would be the best at providing me with the newest information. There were two events in my life that were extremely important. The first was graduating from college. The second was accomplishing the goal of getting into graduate school even though I am dyslexic.
that
Recall one person who has had a significant influence in helping you discover and develop your gifts, who confirmed your potential, inspired you, or who helped you find meaning and direction in life.
What do you feel were the most significant characteristics of this persons relationship with you?
A. Antiqueo
The teachers who inspired and helped us were surely nearly always the ones who took us seriously, who believed in us and gave us a stronger sense of our self-worth and potential.
Cardinal Basil Hume, Profession and Vocation:
Teaching in the Third Millennium, 1999
A. Antiqueo
Education is one of the professions of care and to forget it is to lose touch with something fundamental in the profession. . . . Those we perceive as caring for us have a special influence and vice versa. I believe that fidelity to young people in our time begins with a quality of care, perceivable care, in those who would work to influence them towards good. Perceived care is the mode in which our fidelity to youth is worked out. It provides the context in which teaching as a ministry to youth can function.
- Michael Warren, Youth, Gospel and Liberation
A. Antiqueo
It was the gentleness and tenderness for his neighbor that made it possible for St. Francis de Sales to convert so many souls to God. . . In fact, this virtue won the hearts of all those with whom he dealt, and the affection they had for him was a means he used to bring them to God. Do you have these sentiments of charity and tenderness towards the poor children whom you have to educate? Do you take advantage of their affection for you to lead them to God? If you show the firmness of a father to restrain them from misbehavior, you must also have for them the tenderness of a mother to draw them to you, and to do for them all the good in your power. - M 101.3
Since you are ambassadors of Christ in the work that you do, you must act as representing Jesus himself. He wants your disciples to see him in you and receive your instruction as if he were giving it to them. . . In order for you to fulfill this duty, frequently give yourself to the Spirit of the Lord to act in your work only under his influence. - MR 195.2 The healing and liberating action of God comes to people through the medium of ordinary human relationships. The love of the Christian teacher for young people is a visible sign and instrument of the redeeming love of God.
and servant by the very fact that the Brother/Lasallian teacher makes himself the servant of young people, preparing them to live lives more alert, more responsible, more truly human. . . . The Lasallian educator reveals the religion of love to the extent that he leads the young to experience the benefit of the love he offers them, a love that is sensitive, sturdy and unselfish . . . It is not in books or words that the young first encounter the God who calls them, but rather in the one who instructs them. - Declaration 32.5
Gospel Vision Do not use inappropriate words to refer to your pupils. Address them in a way that affirms their dignity.
Show justice and charity in your corrections. Correct your pupils in a manner befitting rational beings, not like animals. Do not humiliate your pupils. Show courtesy and respect to all as children of God and dwelling places of his Spirit. Look for and affirm the good in each one.
compares those who have charge of souls to a good shepherd who has great care for his sheep. One quality he must possess, according to Our Savior, is to know each one of them individually. This should be one of your main concerns: to be able
to understand your pupils and to discern the right way to guide them. - M 33.1
They must show more mildness to some, more firmness towards others. There are those who call for much patience, those who need to be stimulated and spurred on, some who need to be reproved and punished for their faults, others who must be constantly watched over to prevent them from being lost or going astray. This guidance requires understanding and discernment of spirits, qualities you should earnestly and frequently ask of God. M 33.1
Commenting on the role of the pastoral role of the teacher, De La Salle writes:
a great tenderness must be shown by them for those entrusted to their care. They must be alert to whatever can harm or wound the sheep. This is what leads the sheep to love their shepherds and to delight in their company, for there they find their rest and comfort. - M 33.2 If you show the firmness of a father to restrain them from misbehavior, you must also have for them the tenderness of a mother to draw them to you, and to do for them all the good in your power. - M 101.3
A warm, fraternal concern for all without distinction. Sensitivity to anothers needs and feelings.
Gentleness and kindness that flows from understanding and compassion for anothers vulnerability. Because of you, Exercising judgment, self-control and reserve rather than I am free to be me! anger and harshness. giving way to passions, Because you believe in me, I can believe in myself!
Consistency in challenging pupils to live up to the best of which they are capable. Insisting that students take responsibility for their actions.
You encounter so many obstacles to salvation in this life that it is impossible to avoid them if you are left to yourselves and your own guidance. This is why God gives you Guardian Angels to watch over you . . . This is what God has provided in giving children teachers . . . to whom he has given the concern and vigilance, not only to prevent anything harmful to their salvation from capturing the hearts of children, but also to guide the children through all the dangers they meet in this world. . . M 197.3
and observant in order to respond effectively to any given situation. One keeps a sharp eye in order to make sure that everything goes smoothly. In the Lasallian tradition, one is vigilant for two basic reasons: To carefully monitor a childs progress in order to follow him up, guide and help him. To prevent or curb the development of bad habits and undesirable behavior in the young who lack mindfulness and selfdiscipline. Firm and prudent correction is usually required.
The zeal you are obliged to havemust be so active and so alive that you are able to tell the parents what is said in scripture: Give us their souls, keep everything else for yourselves, that is, what we want is to work for the salvation of their souls; this is the only reason we have undertaken to guide and teach them. M 201.3
Your ministry requires that you teach children the science of salvation, and you are obliged to do this with entire disinterestedness. M 108.2
When we identify with Gods desire, then Gods desire becomes ours. We want what God wants the joy and fulfillment of all his children.
1. The teacher-pupil relationship for the Lasallian educator is the holy ground on which he or she encounters God.
2. Lasallian educators represents Jesus in the way they relate to others. The relationship is potentially sacramental, an instrument of grace and a means of leading others to God.
3. The object of the teacher-pupil relationship is to enable the pupil to live a life more human and Christian.
4. The teachers way of dealing with pupils draws inspiration and guidance from Jesus own teaching and example. The gospel is translated into interpersonal relationships.
5. Six Characteristics of this Relationship:
Unconditional respect. Knowing each student personally. Edification and good example. Tenderness + firmness. Vigilance. Gratuity and disinterestedness.
Special thanks to Mr. Aladdin Antiqueo for the use of his paintings in this presentation.
LAFT/BMV 2003-04